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Dorothea Mackellar
Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar, OBE (1 July 1885 – 14 January 1968) was an Australian poet and fiction writer. Life The only daughter of noted physician and parliamentarian Sir Charles Mackellar, she was born in Sydney in 1885. Although raised in a professional urban family, Mackellar's poetry is usually regarded as quintessential bush poetry, inspired by her experience on her brothers' farms near Gunnedah in northwest New South Wales. Her best-known poem is ''My Country'' , written at age 19 while homesick in England, and first published in the London ''Spectator'' in 1908 under the title Core of My Heart. The second stanza of this poem is amongst the most well-known in Australia. Four volumes of her collected verse were published: The Closed Door (published in 1911, contained the first appearance of My Country under its present name); The Witch Maid, and other verses (1914); Dreamharbour (1923); and Fancy Dress (1926). In addition to writing poems, Mackellar also wrote novels, one by herself, Outlaw's Luck (1913), and at least two in collaboration with Ruth Bedford. These are The Little Blue Devil (1912) and Two's Company (1914). According to Dale Spender, little has been written or is yet known about the circumstances behind this collaboration.Spender (1988) p. 219 Recognition In the New Year's Day Honours of 1968, Dorothea Mackellar was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to Australian literature. She died two weeks later. She is buried with her father and family in Waverley Cemetery overlooking the open ocean.Waverley Cemetery - A Walk Through History No. 1 A memorial to Mackellar stands in ANZAC Park in Gunnedah. A federal electorate covering half of Sydney's Northern Beaches and a street in the Canberra suburb of Cook are named in her honour. (The Canberra suburb of McKellar was not named after her, but is often assumed to have been.) On Australia Day, 26 January 1983, a statue was unveiled in Gunnedah to commemorate Dorothea Mackellar. In conjunction with the unveiling, there was an exhibition of a series of 34 water colour paintings by Jean Isherwood illustrating the writer's most famous poem, My Country. The watercolours were eventually put on permanent display in the Gunnedah Bicentennial Regional Gallery. Isherwood set about painting a series of oils based on the watercolours which were exhibited at the Artarmon Galleries in Sydney in 1986. In 1984, Gunnedah resident Mikie Maas created the "Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards", which has grown into a nationwide poetry competition for Australian school students. 'My Country' was added to the Sounds of Australia Registryin 2009. Publications Poetry *''The Closed Door, and other verses''. Melbourne: Australasian Authors Agency, 1911. *''The Witch-Maid, and other verses. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1914. *''Dreamharbour, and other verses. London: Longmans Green, 1923. *''Fancy Dress, and other verse''. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1926. *''The Poems of Dorothea Mackellar''. Adelaide: Rigby, 1971. *''My Country, and other poems''. Ringwood, Vic: Viking, 1987. *Bill Beavan, In a Sunburned Country (poetry of McKellar with paintings by Beavan). Adelaide: Rigby, 1978; Sydney: Golden Press, 1987. Novels *''The Little Blue Devil'' (with Ruth Bedford). London: Alston Rivers, 1912. *''Outlaw's Luck''. London: Mills & Boon, 1913. *''Two's Company'' (with Ruth Bedford). London: Alston Rivers, 1914. Non-fiction *''Not Understood: An address delivered to the Australian English Association by Dorothea Mackellar, June 11th, 1930''. Sydney: Australian English Association, 1930. Juvenile *''My Country'' (illustrated by Andrew McLean). Malburn, SA: Omnibus, 2012. Journals *''I Love a Sunburnt Country: The diaries of Dorothea Mackellar'' (edited by Jyoti Brunsdon). North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson, 1989. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Dorothea Mackellar, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 25, 2014. See also * List of Australian poets References *Dale Spender, Writing a New World: Two centuries of Australian women writers, London: Pandora, 1988. Notes External links ;Poems *[http://www.imagesaustralia.com/mycountry.htm My Country] Complete text of My Country * A small selection of poems (6 poems) *[http://www.atmitchell.com/journeys/history/people/ Original manuscript of My Country (Core of My Heart) - State Library of NSW] *Dorothea Mackellar at AllPoetry (12 poems) * Dorothea Mackellar at PoemHunter (12 poems) ;Audio / video * australianscreen online 'My Country' read by Dorothea Mackellar *Dorothea McKellar at YouTube *Australia, as Country Audio of a song based on the poem My Country ;About * Mackellar, Isobel Marion Dorothea (1885–1968) in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. *Dorothea Mackellar biography page at Gunnedah Tourism * Dorothea Mackellar Official website. ;Etc. *Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards *Dorothea Mackellar portrait Portrait of Mackellar, aged 81, by Norman Grosskopf Category:1885 births Category:1968 deaths Category:Australian poets Category:Australian women writers Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Writers from New South Wales Category:Burials at Waverley Cemetery Category:Women poets Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets